SELF’S EPL PROJECT, DAY 6: Be a Seeker, Not a Tourist

The Scene: While in India, Liz Gilbert plans to spend six weeks meditating at an Ashram, then take a breakneck trip around the country to ride elephants and camels, see the sites, visit with holy men. But at the Ashram, she realizes how much time she's spent in her life "crashing around like a great gasping fish, either squirming away from some uncomfortable distress or flopping hungrily toward ever more pleasure." Instead of touring the country, she decides to stay put and keep meditating.

The Reality: When we only get a few weeks of vacation every year, how many of us actually choose to sit still and hum when we could be sight seeing, shopping on the boardwalk or staying in fancy hotels? We NEED the fun, excitement, and rest! But do we really get it? Is tourist travel really all that? Some, like experienced traveler Sandra Jensen, say it might be keeping us from making deeper connections with ourselves and others.

Stop flitting about! Staying put can make for a richer experience.

Sandra had been working at a Toronto bank for three years when she and her husband David decided to go on holiday and travel the world for a year. Like Liz, they originally planned on traveling around India-their first stop-in search of spiritual teachers.

But when they stayed at palace-like hotels in Rajasthan, instead of feeling more spiritual, they were left feeling “quite disconnected and uncomfortable.”

So in Dharamsala, they decided to do things differently. David had learned about a school where he could teach English. And five minutes after they arrived, Sandra asked the receptionist at their hotel what she might do.

“Well, what can you do?” the receptionist asked. Sandra said she knew about computers. “Photoshop?” Yes. “Excellent.” The very next day Sandra found herself in a mud-floored little shack teaching Photoshop to a small group of Tibetan monks and nuns, some of whom were refugees.

It was Sandra’s first time volunteering–and she had fun figuring out how to describe the internet to people who’d never used computers before. She also experienced the kind of personal and spiritual connection she had hoped for, which she wouldn’t have found on temple tours and in hotel lobbies. “We would break for tea and they would ask me questions like: What is the nature of love? It was extraordinary. It was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.”

The Mantra: Flitting is for the birds.
“When you stay in one place you get to know people. You can’t do that if you’re flitting about,” says Sandra, who doesn’t think she can do “the holiday thing” ever again.